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Turn off all notifications except the most critical. Wear a smartwatch that displays critical notifications. Your phone use will drop dramatically. The only no

Turn off all notifications except the most critical. Wear a smartwatch that displays critical notifications. Your phone use will drop dramatically. The only notifications I receive are: Calendar, Text Messages, and Phone Calls. I give out my phone number sparingly so the only people that can reach me synchronously are family and close friends. Everyone else can wait until I batch respond if I happen to check that app.

SllX 8y ago
Adding on to this: liberal use of Do Not Disturb and practicing good phone etiquette in social settings. A good set of wireless headphones with a mic and liberal use of the voice assistant makes it so you don’t even need to look at your phone for about 60%-80% of what you want to do, so if you want to put on a podcast or some music without the so-called risk of feeding your addiction to some game/social network/bs app, there you go. Oh and don’t have apps installed that you’re not going to use, put everything essential on the first page and bury everything else, only using search to call them up.
- Jtsummers 8y ago
  I do a cleanup periodically on my phone. I'll move most apps to a small set of folders on the 3rd screen (first screen or dock contain the most useful or used apps, second screen is for the rest). If I open an app on the 3rd screen, I move it to the first two or the dock. If, after some period of time any apps are still on that third screen, I delete them. It's the same technique I use for clearing out my closet or other areas of my home and office. Pack things away (but still technically accessible), and if you use them put them where they should be stored for use. After a few months, give away, trash, or sell the remaining contents.
  - derwiki 8y ago
    I take it even further and put all apps in a folder on my 2nd screen, and use spotlight to launch apps. Easier to not forget what I was doing and open up any time consuming app. Either I know what I want to do or I put my phone away.
tjr225 8y ago
I agree with the first part, but not the second. Also, I've found uninstalling any apps the you find even slightly addicting to help. You more than likely won't miss them. Once I realized I was only using snapchat and instagram to essentially brag about whatever fun I was having, I removed them.
- JonathanMerklin 8y ago
  Hypothetical: what if I feel like my addiction is literally just browsing the internet? I certainly have valid use cases to open up Google Chrome but I've noticed that I - er... hypothetically someone I know exhibits classic signs of addiction with respect to getting a fix of Reddit, HackerNews, flipping through Github buzz or release notes on projects I care about, etc.
  - tjr225 8y ago
    I'm not so sure how to fix that. It's definitely a problem that I have- here I am having this conversation with you after all.
nicoburns 8y ago
One thing I've found is that one of the things I look at my phone for more often is to see the time. I've taken to wearing an ordinary (analogue) watch and found that helps quite a bit!
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
css 8y ago
> Wear a smartwatch that displays critical notifications I cannot stress enough how true this is. When I am out and about, my watch frees me from pulling my iPhone out of my pocket. At face value this may seem irrelevant, since I glance at my watch just as much, but there is quite a staggering difference in these two behaviors. When I use my phone, I unlock with Face ID, open Notification Center, tap a notification, interact with an app, swipe home, check Twitter, and so forth. With the watch, I simply raise my wrist. If the unread indicator is lit, I explore. If not, no need to worry; I just lower my wrist.
- Markoff 8y ago
  iPhone can't show notifications without unlocking lock screen? not much different from looking at watch pressing one button when looking at phone
  - css 8y ago
    Much, much more difficult to get sucked into apps when using your phone than using your watch. It is not comfortable to hold your wrist up for very long, especially if you're doing more than glancing.
fetus8 8y ago
I'd like to stress how important these two things are. I've been wearing an Apple Watch since launch in 2015, and my personal experience has been incredible. I've whittled down my actual phone use at home to next to nothing. Between the AW and a HomePod, picking up my phone is a rare occurrence. The only notifications I get are via SMS or iMessage, and calls via phone or FaceTime. I don't mean to sound like a fanboy, as I imagine a similar setup can exist with an Android phone as well. By curbing my phone use at home, I rarely feel compelled to pull my phone out while with friends and family. I imagine this is more difficult for those who are tapped into social media a great deal, but I think starting to curb use at home can set a precedent to disconnect with your phone and it will bleed into your life outside of home. A smartwatch is a great way to instantly curb checking your phone by putting (important)notifications on your wrist.
- nohnce 8y ago
  Interesting! Never expected smartwatches to be anything more than trendy fads, but that makes a lot of sense. I do think a lot of phone anxiety comes from the screen being obscured from vision and the wondering that follows about whether I am "missing out". Limiting the use case by only having essential notifications on your wrist might be a good alternative to switching to a regular phone.
- xrd 8y ago
  100% my experience as well. Very unexpected and terrific for cutting out absent-minded smart phone use.
wallflower 8y ago
Too many notifications may condition/cause a flight-or-fight response, especially if you are On-Call and you get a notification at night. I turned off all notifications except for PagerDuty. I figure if something is really, really urgent, people will pick up the phone and call (work or otherwise).
genghisjahn 8y ago
What I have done is just get rid of apps that I can "fall into". All social media. News, Shopping. Any thing that I can just mindlessly thumb through. If I want those things, I can wait until I'm at a laptop. If I forget what they were, oh well. Again, that's what is working for me.
beat 8y ago
Interesting! I'd always thought of a smartwatch as making it worse, not better. Hadn't though about the ability to just put the damn phone down.

SllX 8y ago

Adding on to this: liberal use of Do Not Disturb and practicing good phone etiquette in social settings. A good set of wireless headphones with a mic and liberal use of the voice assistant makes it so you don’t even need to look at your phone for about 60%-80% of what you want to do, so if you want to put on a podcast or some music without the so-called risk of feeding your addiction to some game/social network/bs app, there you go. Oh and don’t have apps installed that you’re not going to use, put everything essential on the first page and bury everything else, only using search to call them up.

Jtsummers 8y ago
I do a cleanup periodically on my phone. I'll move most apps to a small set of folders on the 3rd screen (first screen or dock contain the most useful or used apps, second screen is for the rest). If I open an app on the 3rd screen, I move it to the first two or the dock. If, after some period of time any apps are still on that third screen, I delete them. It's the same technique I use for clearing out my closet or other areas of my home and office. Pack things away (but still technically accessible), and if you use them put them where they should be stored for use. After a few months, give away, trash, or sell the remaining contents.
- derwiki 8y ago
  I take it even further and put all apps in a folder on my 2nd screen, and use spotlight to launch apps. Easier to not forget what I was doing and open up any time consuming app. Either I know what I want to do or I put my phone away.

tjr225 8y ago

I agree with the first part, but not the second. Also, I've found uninstalling any apps the you find even slightly addicting to help. You more than likely won't miss them. Once I realized I was only using snapchat and instagram to essentially brag about whatever fun I was having, I removed them.

JonathanMerklin 8y ago
Hypothetical: what if I feel like my addiction is literally just browsing the internet? I certainly have valid use cases to open up Google Chrome but I've noticed that I - er... hypothetically someone I know exhibits classic signs of addiction with respect to getting a fix of Reddit, HackerNews, flipping through Github buzz or release notes on projects I care about, etc.
- tjr225 8y ago
  I'm not so sure how to fix that. It's definitely a problem that I have- here I am having this conversation with you after all.

nicoburns 8y ago

One thing I've found is that one of the things I look at my phone for more often is to see the time. I've taken to wearing an ordinary (analogue) watch and found that helps quite a bit!

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

css 8y ago

> Wear a smartwatch that displays critical notifications I cannot stress enough how true this is. When I am out and about, my watch frees me from pulling my iPhone out of my pocket. At face value this may seem irrelevant, since I glance at my watch just as much, but there is quite a staggering difference in these two behaviors. When I use my phone, I unlock with Face ID, open Notification Center, tap a notification, interact with an app, swipe home, check Twitter, and so forth. With the watch, I simply raise my wrist. If the unread indicator is lit, I explore. If not, no need to worry; I just lower my wrist.

Markoff 8y ago
iPhone can't show notifications without unlocking lock screen? not much different from looking at watch pressing one button when looking at phone
- css 8y ago
  Much, much more difficult to get sucked into apps when using your phone than using your watch. It is not comfortable to hold your wrist up for very long, especially if you're doing more than glancing.

fetus8 8y ago

I'd like to stress how important these two things are. I've been wearing an Apple Watch since launch in 2015, and my personal experience has been incredible. I've whittled down my actual phone use at home to next to nothing. Between the AW and a HomePod, picking up my phone is a rare occurrence. The only notifications I get are via SMS or iMessage, and calls via phone or FaceTime. I don't mean to sound like a fanboy, as I imagine a similar setup can exist with an Android phone as well. By curbing my phone use at home, I rarely feel compelled to pull my phone out while with friends and family. I imagine this is more difficult for those who are tapped into social media a great deal, but I think starting to curb use at home can set a precedent to disconnect with your phone and it will bleed into your life outside of home. A smartwatch is a great way to instantly curb checking your phone by putting (important)notifications on your wrist.

nohnce 8y ago
Interesting! Never expected smartwatches to be anything more than trendy fads, but that makes a lot of sense. I do think a lot of phone anxiety comes from the screen being obscured from vision and the wondering that follows about whether I am "missing out". Limiting the use case by only having essential notifications on your wrist might be a good alternative to switching to a regular phone.
xrd 8y ago
100% my experience as well. Very unexpected and terrific for cutting out absent-minded smart phone use.

wallflower 8y ago

Too many notifications may condition/cause a flight-or-fight response, especially if you are On-Call and you get a notification at night. I turned off all notifications except for PagerDuty. I figure if something is really, really urgent, people will pick up the phone and call (work or otherwise).

genghisjahn 8y ago

What I have done is just get rid of apps that I can "fall into". All social media. News, Shopping. Any thing that I can just mindlessly thumb through. If I want those things, I can wait until I'm at a laptop. If I forget what they were, oh well. Again, that's what is working for me.

beat 8y ago

Interesting! I'd always thought of a smartwatch as making it worse, not better. Hadn't though about the ability to just put the damn phone down.